A bomb cyclone named Gianna pummeled the US Southeast Sunday. It cut off power. It caused fatal traffic accidents. And it dumped rarely seen if not near-record amounts of snowfall across a region where big white winters are rare. Gianna struck just days after Winter Storm Fern swept across the central and eastern US. Gianna is blamed for at least four deaths in Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina. In North Carolina, an icy highway triggered a pileup that stranded as many as 100 cars on Interstate 85. As of Monday morning, the storm had left nearly 113,000 people in the dark, said PowerOutage.US. The storm covered the region with snow. Coastal North Carolina received an almost unheard of 17 inches. The state's western mountains saw nearly 2 feet. The storm dropped between 6 to 9 inches in North Georgia, South Carolina, East Tennessee, and southern Virginia. Like Fern, Gianna’s snowfall is likely to linger for a few days across much of the region. Temperatures fell to near zero in some places. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Florida said Monday that the storm has caused a rare event. "It is colder across the Sunshine State than over Montana in the depth of winter," NWS said. After two winter storms and plunging temperatures that have buried their yards under thick sheets of ice and snow, many people in the US have had enough. Those at the Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on Monday clearly had strong feelings on the matter. The famed furry weather predictor saw his shadow. Based on lore, this means there’ll be six more weeks of winter. When people at the festival heard that, they booed. Reflect: How do extreme or unexpected weather events affect your daily routines, moods, or decisions? Photo a couple walking through inclement weather from Reuters.
